Anyone hear of Al Martin?

Has anyone heard of a martial artist from south Florida named Al Martin? I have been cruising the web and looking for some Shorin Ryu in Florida and this guy reeks of BS.

This dude has like 50 websites that all link to each other with no real info on them. He is claiming to be Matsumura Shorin Ryu, but yet doesn't practice anything that Master Kise teaches. And the funniest thing to me is his website(s) are all copyrighted before the internet really came online much.

I think his list of black belts is total BS, as well as what he is trying to sell.

Not sure but I think this Al Martin guy (or Alton Martin on some of his sites) is a total BS artist. This dude is running several sites that all point to one another, and I have asked about him on several other forums and I guess lots of people have had problems with this dude in the past.

On top of this he is claiming in some other sites to have some BS lineage directly to Tote Sakugawa and I guess the story is that his father saved some kid's life or something and was given lessons in Shorin Ryu because of it.

I call BS. Just wondering if anyone else has heard anything or knows anything.

Well my name is Duncan, and I am a marine stationed in Pensacola Florida. I study Shorin Ryu, and spent 3 years training with Master Kise at Gunners Gym in Okinawa. IIIMEF baby!!

I have not seen him personally, but I have seen a video of Paul Hart on youtube and that dude is suppose to be his top student... and he SUCKS!!!!!

I guess the youtube video is all I have for evidence, but in looking for a Shorin Ryu person in Florida I found his barrage of websites and all of this other crap his guys have posted in forums. From looking at his sites and whatnot it seems like he doesn't have his head on straight or is some strange type of fanatic. I was mostly just wondering if anyone has had any dealings with this guy, because from the outside his group looks like total ****. I don't want to have to drive 9 hours to train with this loser to find out he is BS artist when maybe someone on here has dealt with him in the past.

From his sites and from the video of his top guy, I say it is all BS. His Shorin Ryu looks like bad Tae Kwon Do to me.

Yeah, this guy doesn't quite seem to have it all together. Lots of Super Secret Knowledge and inersting historical (?) stuff. If you want to continue with Kenshin Kan (although it sounds like you weren't really happy with it in your other thread) there is a guy named Mike Abrams in Deltona that is part of the federation. Mike Hancock was down in FL somewhere before he passed away - I'm sure some of his students are still around too.

AL Martin Shorin Ryu Florida

Hazhimiti-uganabira all:

I have trained with Al Martin from south Florida, he is the kind of guy who will hand you your teeth. His lineage is from his Father Al Martin Sr. through Bull Usi Sakugawa of Hawaii (Bento Farmers from Okinawa) Decendant of Kanga Teryu (Tode Sakugawa) it is a real mean Family system from Okinawa. In the system you will find the oldest of Okinawa's kata like the Channan, Kusanku, Chinto and the Tsings. I studied once with Kise for three years, his Te is Bull shxt compared with the Sakugawa system. The video of the Paul guy on U-tube was a fake that guy never trained with Al Martin. Al Martin's Uchi Deshi are Matt Sommers and Danny Jones both live in Georgia, U.S.A. Instead of posting here like a coward without honor, you should drive down to Florida and find out for yourself. Why would you ask other people make decisions for you? Are you that shallow of a person? I would suggest in the future before you mis-inform people you should research the facts or you are just spreading your own BULL-SHIDO. I have studied Uechi Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Shorinji, and Goju Ryu,. You can reach me at tentigers97@yahoo.com I am Tim Griffin.

Well if you bothered to read the thread you'd see they actually WERE asking for facts and evidence. Plus, there's nothing wrong with Duncan asking about your teacher. A serious question warrants a serious answer and if your teacher is as legit as you say he is, then you have nothing to worry about.

Thank you for showing up though. I'll leave the actual questioning and investigation to the veterans. I'll use this thread as training I guess.

So how long have you trained with Al Martin? What makes his style better than Kise's? Can you provide us with your own videos showing training and/or sparring? DO you guys spar, and if so how hard?

I can say that I have met Al Martin and that I know the story of the Paul Hart student stuff. When I visited Al Martin in Florida he explained that Paul Hart wasn't a real person, it was a fictitious person made up to get rank from organizations. The guy in the video was a guy who trained off and on but not a "top student" by a very long shot. I do not believe they allow cameras during training, at least they didn't some years back.

A better idea would be to go meet Mr. Martin and give him a try. He is open to accepting just about anyone who wants to test him as he said he felt this would provide new students. I have a picture of Paul hart saved on my PC

Is this the Paul Hart from the video? If so, this isn't really Paul Hart, just a guy they had film some stuff for them. I thought it was funny that of 30 orgainzations they got 28 certificates. They got rokudans from the http://isok.org/ I.S.O.K. and Paul Hart was put on the Shihankai of the http://www.seitokarate.com/ I.S.K.K. organization. They use to have copies of the certificates available online but i cannot find a link now. You have to admit it is funny that people would issue high ranks to a person that does not exist and that they have never met. Kind of buts Bullshido into perspective if you ask me.

That is one of the many guys that they had to play the part. I think that is the one guy in the video who had surgery on his arm or something like that. They ticked off a lot of people who were running certificate mills, funny thing is the same people still wont admit that they run certificate mills. There are a bunch of good guys in that group and they are all fighters and train very hard. If you doubt that you should certainly go meet them. The pont is there isn't really a Paul Hart, they took a play on words Paul Hart = Phart or Fart. It was a joke to them. Al Martin Sr. does have verified lineage to Ushi Sakugawa and another member of their group is a student of Chosuke Sakugawa. This is from the Hawaiian line of the Sakugawa family. Before you call BS you should have the courage to meet the person you are speaking of. Enough said, I will go back to my hole.